Turnover Tuesdays - All My Returns Will Now Going to be Inspected By Me, Not Amazon

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

The previous posts in the series can be found at the bottom of this post.



Update: It seems that this option allows Amazon to repackage any item that has damaged packaging and sell as new.  However, if an associate deems something sellable as is, there is no way to stop them from automatically putting it back into your inventory other than a removal order.  

It is Your Choice to Have Amazon Inspect Items or Do it Yourself

Amazon gives you the option of inspecting returns for you.  This is a service that they provide for free which is nice.  If they deem the returned unit to be sellable as new, they will put the item back into your inventory and sell it for you without you touching it again.

The other option is that Amazon will not inspect it for you.  You have to create a removal order, inspect it yourself and send it back in.

Having Amazon inspect it is nice.  It saves you time and money.  You don't have to pay $.50 to have the unit removed to you and the shipping back to an Amazon warehouse.  Until yesterday, this was the option I chose.

Turnover Tuesdays - Returns, Returns, Returns!

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

The previous posts in the series can be found at the bottom of this post.

Returns, Uch!

Just the word returns gets me upset.  Oh, and those emails!  They can ruin your day.  I hate returns, it's just money out of my pocket.  Returns had a major impact on me in 2015, especially during the holiday season and immediately thereafter.  Last year I had over $8,000 in returns in December and then again in January.  Salt was just getting poured further and further into the wounds.

I was mostly ok with that since I was still making money despite the returns.  I had over $100k in sales last December so my business could survive those returns.  Still, that's a ton of returns and it would be nice to cut that down for this year.  I also want customers to be able to return item - just not mine ;) - so that they are more confident making purchases.

Breakdown of Amazon Return Fees

Returns have a way of really eating your profits.  I think this is pretty obvious.  You bought an item for $50 and flipped it for $100.  Amazon paid you $80. Awesome, you just made $30 and 60% return on your investment (ROI).

Then you get the dreaded email saying that you have a return.  Now you are stuck with no profit and just the cost of $50.  The item may not be worth $50 anymore and you may not be able to return it to the store to get your $50 back.  Uch!


Oh well, hopefully it doesn't happen too much and your overall profit margins can sustain some returns.  Otherwise you need to rethink what you are doing.

What you may not realize is that aside from losing your commission, Amazon also charges you fees for handling the return on your behalf.

Fees Associated with Returns

Turnover Tuesdays - Sometimes a Return can be Very Profitable

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

Week 1 - First attempt at reselling

Week 2 - My second straight fail

Week 3 - My iPad mini collection

Week 4 - Bed Bath and Beyond

Week 5 - An iPad Idea for Your Staples Gift Card Collection

Week 6 - An iPad Idea for Manufactured Spending

Week 7 - The Great iPad Deal that Wasn't

Week 8 - Lenovo Tablets

Week 9 - iPads at Staples

Week 10 - Loving that Groupon iPad Deal

Week 11 - iPads on Sale at Sears

Week 12 - Roombas at Bed Bath and Beyond

Week 13 - My Sam's Club iPad Collection for the $20k Challenge

Week 14 - Best Buy Gift Cards Fail

Week 15 - Staples Ink Recycling and Staples Rewards

Week 16 - What Happened to My Surface Pro 3?

Week 17 - Dell - Love that AmEx Offer

Week 18 - XBox Saves the Day

Week 19 - Using Amazon Chat and the Importance of Organization

Week 20 - The Impact of Returns

Week 21 - Apple Watch is the Best Watch

Week 22 - Headphones, Lots of Headphones

Week 23 - Storage Fees - I Don't Like Heavy Items

Week 24 - Some Companies try to Bully!

Week 25 - An iPhone is not an iPad

Week 26 - Patience vs. A Quick Hit and Fewer Deals Coming!

Week 27 - Competing Against Amazon

Week 28 - Toys and Retail Arbitrage vs. Online Arbitrage

Week 29 - Check Your Listings Carefully - My Big Fail

Week 30 - Killing it at Walgreen's!

Week 31 - Sometimes You Need to Stop, Refocus and Reprice
Week 32 - Target Cartwheel and other Coupons can have a Major Impact
Week 33 - Got a Return?  You Might need to Reprice

Turnover Tuesdays - Got a Return? You Might Need to Reprice

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

Week 1 - First attempt at reselling

Week 2 - My second straight fail

Week 3 - My iPad mini collection

Week 4 - Bed Bath and Beyond

Week 5 - An iPad Idea for Your Staples Gift Card Collection

Week 6 - An iPad Idea for Manufactured Spending

Week 7 - The Great iPad Deal that Wasn't

Week 8 - Lenovo Tablets

Week 9 - iPads at Staples

Week 10 - Loving that Groupon iPad Deal

Week 11 - iPads on Sale at Sears

Week 12 - Roombas at Bed Bath and Beyond

Week 13 - My Sam's Club iPad Collection for the $20k Challenge

Week 14 - Best Buy Gift Cards Fail

Week 15 - Staples Ink Recycling and Staples Rewards

Week 16 - What Happened to My Surface Pro 3?

Week 17 - Dell - Love that AmEx Offer

Week 18 - XBox Saves the Day

Week 19 - Using Amazon Chat and the Importance of Organization

Week 20 - The Impact of Returns

Week 21 - Apple Watch is the Best Watch

Week 22 - Headphones, Lots of Headphones

Week 23 - Storage Fees - I Don't Like Heavy Items

Week 24 - Some Companies try to Bully!

Week 25 - An iPhone is not an iPad

Week 26 - Patience vs. A Quick Hit and Fewer Deals Coming!

Week 27 - Competing Against Amazon

Week 28 - Toys and Retail Arbitrage vs. Online Arbitrage

Week 29 - Check Your Listings Carefully - My Big Fail

Week 30 - Killing it at Walgreen's!

Week 31 - Sometimes You Need to Stop, Refocus and Reprice
Week 32 - Target Cartwheel and other Coupons can have a Major Impact

Use Boomerang for Gmail to Track Returns - How to Tell When you Deserve a Reimbursement

Returnuary is in full swing for many.  It's been very painful on my margins but it is part of the game.

Returns work as follows:  Customers have 30 days from when they receive an item to request a return.  Any item purchased from November 1st to December 31st has an extended return window.  You can request a return until January 31st.

Once a customer has requested a return you receive an email that says that Amazon has taken your money away for that sale.  The customer now has 45 days to actually send the item to an Amazon Fulfillment Center.  Hopefully it never makes it back to Amazon in time.  If it doesn't make it there, you get a full reimbursement from Amazon as if the return never happened.


Conveniently for Amazon, they don't always pay you back after 45 days and sometimes you need to open a case with Amazon to request reimbursement.

Ways to Keep Track of Returns